Overseas Virtual Assets Worth 131 Trillion Won... Corporations Own 74%

National Tax Service, 2023 Overseas Financial Account Reporting Results
From This Year, Overseas Virtual Assets Must Also Be Reported

The scale of overseas virtual assets was found to reach 131 trillion KRW. More than 74% of the virtual assets were owned by corporations.

According to the '2023 Overseas Financial Account Reporting Results' released by the National Tax Service (NTS) on the 20th, the total number of overseas financial account reports was 5,419, amounting to 186.4 trillion KRW, showing a 38.1% increase in the number of reporters and a 191.3% surge in the reported amount compared to last year.

An NTS official explained, "The reason why the number of reporters and the reported amount reached record highs this year is that overseas virtual asset accounts were included in the reporting targets for the first time. Despite being the first report of virtual asset accounts, 1,432 individual and corporate reporters declared 130.8 trillion KRW, which accounted for the largest amount among all reported assets (70.2% of the total reported amount)."

Among corporate reporters, 73 corporations reported 120.4 trillion KRW (74.3% of the total corporate reported amount). The NTS analyzed that the main cause was that corporate reporters who are coin issuers reported for the first time this year while holding reserved quantities of self-issued coins in overseas wallets.

Excluding overseas virtual asset accounts, which are difficult to analyze by country due to listing website addresses instead of location addresses, the reported amounts in overseas financial accounts held in U.S. accounts were the highest for both individual and corporate reporters. Corporations held 9.9 trillion KRW (23.9% of the total), and individuals held 8.4 trillion KRW (61.1%) in U.S. accounts.

Looking at the holding status by age group of individual reporters who reported overseas virtual asset accounts, the proportion of reporters was highest in their 30s (40.2%), followed by their 40s (30.2%) and 50s (14.1%). The average reported amount per person was highest among those in their 30s at 12.38 billion KRW, followed by those aged 20 and under (9.77 billion KRW), and those in their 50s (3.51 billion KRW).

The NTS strictly enforces sanctions such as fines, criminal charges, and public disclosure of names by identifying violators of overseas financial account reporting obligations through verification and tax audits. If a reportable account is not reported within the reporting deadline, a fine equivalent to up to 20% of the unreported amount is imposed. If the source of the unreported amount is not explained or falsely explained, an additional fine equivalent to 20% of the amount is imposed. By the end of December 2022, the NTS detected 637 unreported overseas financial account cases and imposed fines totaling 215.7 billion KRW.

An NTS official stated, "By the end of this year, we will thoroughly verify suspects of unreported overseas financial accounts by comprehensively reviewing inter-country information exchange data, foreign exchange data, and notifications from related agencies, and strictly enforce fines, penalties, public disclosure of names, and related tax collection. To respond to the potential risk of tax base erosion through virtual assets, we are preparing for information exchange in accordance with the virtual asset transaction reporting regulations that tax authorities worldwide, including the NTS, are promoting. We ask all reporting subjects to faithfully report their overseas virtual asset accounts as well."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.